Chapter 225: Path of Knowledge
Rising, Li Wen paid the bill for the drinks. Her movements were silent, as if she had never been there.
Exiting the tavern, Port Beren under the night sky was even more crowded and chaotic than by day. Drunk sailors sang tuneless songs loudly, adventurers brawled at street corners, splashing blood, and the air was filled with a dangerous aura.
The player common area in Port Beren was not difficult to find, usually located in cheaply rented inns or private rooms on the second floor of large taverns. Relying on her previous life’s experience, Li Wen quickly pinpointed several target areas. She finally found Fu Qingyan and her group at an inn called “Home of the Sea Breeze.”
The inn’s lobby was practically empty. The front desk attendant was fast asleep, and only a few players were gathered in a corner, discussing something in low voices. Fu Qingyan sat among them, looking somewhat helpless.
“Class monitor, I still don’t understand why such an important thing as a sea chart would be casually handed over to a stranger,” complained one tall, thin young man timidly, looking as if he wanted to be angry but didn’t dare to be.
“That’s enough, Yang Yi.” The one speaking was another Elven player, who looked frail and weak. She appeared small and soft, but her tone was quite impolite. “Qingyan must have her reasons for doing this, so stop complaining. Aren’t you tired of calling her ‘class monitor’ all the time?”
Fu Qingyan sighed and patiently explained, “Firstly, she’s not a stranger; she’s someone who saved us. Secondly, I’ve said it many times. We need to think long-term and not just focus on immediate gains and losses, even if this is just a game… It’s impossible to gain others’ trust without making an effort. Besides, haven’t you all memorized the contents of the sea chart already?”
At that moment, Li Wen pushed open the creaking wooden door of the inn and walked in, the hem of her cloak stirring up fine dust as it swept over the threshold. The noisy conversations in the lobby abruptly stopped, and six pairs of eyes turned to the uninvited guest.
“It seems I’ve come at the wrong time,” she said, standing at the edge of the oil lamp’s light. Her gaze swept across the faces of these somewhat familiar people, her voice casual and unconcerned.
Fu Qingyan stood up slightly, her wooden chair scraping sharply against the floor. A smile appeared on her beautiful face, “Miss Mephistopheles, you’ve come at just the right time. We were just discussing…”
“The sea chart,” Li Wen walked directly to the table, took out the yellowed parchment from inside her cloak, and gently pushed it towards her. “Returning it to its owner.”
The parchment was spread out on the rough wooden table. Under the dim oil lamp light, the blurry coastlines and place names appeared even more faded. Fu Qingyan picked up the sea chart, her fingertips lightly brushing over the markings. She looked up, meeting Li Wen’s gaze, hidden in the shadow of her hood.
“Does Miss Mephistopheles think the information on this sea chart isn’t detailed enough?” she asked with a smile, seemingly having expected this.
Li Wen’s voice was calm and steady, “It only marks the general range of the sea area and doesn’t provide the specific coordinates of the ruins. Both Black Reef Bay and Cape of Submergence, just marking their locations on the sea chart, takes up a considerable area.” She paused and added, “If the ruins really exist.”
Fu Qingyan smiled slightly and spread the sea chart flat on the table again. “Miss Mephistopheles observes very carefully. This sea chart does have a deeper secret. Its creator seemed to intentionally hide the most crucial part, which cannot be seen by ordinary means.”
She looked at her companions. The tall, thin young man who had complained earlier shifted his gaze unnaturally, lowering his head and becoming a shrinking turtle. The Elven girl, however, leaned closer with curiosity.
“Qingyan, you didn’t mention before that this sea chart had a secret,” the Elven girl asked, blinking her big eyes.
Fu Qingyan shook her head helplessly, ignoring her companion’s interruption, and turned to Li Wen. “This sea area, that is, Black Reef Bay, is said to have very complex currents and be full of hidden reefs, making it impossible for ordinary ships to navigate, and thus it is not recorded on normal sea charts. The creator may have hidden the key coordinates to prevent the sea chart from falling into the wrong hands, or it might just be a prank, who knows.”
As she spoke, she took out a small leather waterskin and a small piece of ordinary-looking black stone from her backpack. The stone’s surface was rough, with traces of shell fragments on its edges, as if it had been picked up casually from the seaside.
“This is ‘Ink-Soaked Stone’,” Fu Qingyan explained. “It’s a common stone found on the beaches near Port Beren and has no special value, but it reacts uniquely with certain special inks.” She uncorked the waterskin, and a faint smell of the sea drifted out. “And this waterskin is filled with seawater collected from the dock this morning.”
Saying this, Fu Qingyan dipped a corner of the black stone into the waterskin, wetting it with a little seawater, and then carefully began to gently wipe the area marked as “Black Reef Bay” on the sea chart. Her movements were light, as if afraid of damaging the already fragile parchment.
Li Wen watched quietly, remaining silent. She could feel no mana fluctuations from Fu Qingyan; this seemed to be purely utilizing the properties of matter itself.
As the Ink-Soaked Stone slowly moved across the sea chart, a wondrous sight occurred. The originally blurry ink marks began to gradually deepen in color after being touched by a small amount of seawater and coming into contact with the Ink-Soaked Stone. In certain specific locations, faint, tiny lines and symbols that were completely absent before began to appear.
Fu Qingyan’s expression was focused, and fine beads of sweat appeared on her temples. The area she wiped gradually expanded, and more and more new lines emerged, connecting and intersecting with each other, outlining a more complex and specific pattern on the previously empty sea chart.
After about fifteen minutes, Fu Qingyan stopped and let out a long sigh. “Done.”
The sea chart on the table had changed its appearance. Within the dark ink marking “Black Reef Bay,” a spiral-shaped mark made of countless fine red lines clearly appeared. At the center of the mark was a tiny, almost imperceptible black dot, and next to it appeared a series of numbers marked with special symbols, looking like some kind of positional parameters.
“This is the precise coordinate of the ruins,” Fu Qingyan said, pointing to the black dot, her tone carrying a hint of pride. “The creator used a double-layer ink. The surface layer is ordinary ink, while the bottom layer is mixed with a seaweed extract that only develops color under specific salinity and catalyzed by Ink-Soaked Stone. If I hadn’t accidentally heard rumors about this from Old Joey, I probably wouldn’t have been able to unlock this secret.”
Li Wen was indifferent to this. Her gaze fell on the black dot, and she secretly compared this location with the scattered clues about the Soul Lord from her previous life. Although she couldn’t be completely certain, this was undoubtedly a valuable discovery.
“Thank you,” Li Wen nodded slightly, knowing that it was time to discuss terms.
As expected, Fu Qingyan changed the subject, “Since Miss Mephistopheles already knows the secret of the sea chart, then regarding the reward…”
She surveyed her companions. All five pairs of eyes looked at Li Wen with expectant or nervous expressions.
“There are six of us,” Fu Qingyan’s voice was clear and firm. “We all wish to embark on the path of transcendence. Therefore, Miss Mephistopheles, what we need are materials sufficient for all six of us to complete the promotion ritual.”
Ritual materials for six people was not a small matter. Even the most basic path promotion often required core materials that were quite rare and expensive. If it were before encountering “impurities,” Li Wen might have been able to afford it, but now…
“Would you mind showing me the promotion ritual you possess?” Li Wen asked.
Everyone’s gaze shifted to Fu Qingyan. The girl nodded slightly and gave a wry smile, “Of course, no problem.”
Saying this, she painstakingly took out a palm-sized stone slab from her backpack and then carefully placed it on the table. Everyone’s attention was focused on this small stone slab, and then they discovered that besides being covered with incomprehensible characters and patterns, the stone slab had nothing else out of the ordinary.
Li Wen took just one glance and recognized it as the Stage One ritual for a Seeker on the Path of Knowledge. The Path of Knowledge belonged to the Primordial Energy lineage, a path that focused on gradually revealing the self and exploring truth through the accumulation, understanding, and application of an intrinsic knowledge system. In summary, the more one knows, the more one understands, and the stronger one becomes.
Li Wen had expected this. In her previous life, Fu Qingyan was a Transcendent who had walked the Path of Knowledge, and she had even advanced to Stage Five.
After confirming it was the Path of Knowledge, Li Wen felt relieved. The ritual materials for promoting a Seeker were not difficult to find. There were plenty of them in the fairy’s pocket, and since many materials could be substituted for each other, she should be able to gather six sets by piecing them together.
